WORDS OF WISDOM
But anyway, he was very open with everything. He let me watch his men working. He let me watch him use the solder pot. And we got along real good. He said, “You ought to be a distributor.” I said, “Distributor?” He said, “If you become a distributor, you can buy your cores 20% cheaper for yourself plus you can sell them and make some money.”
Frank Finger, Sr., Frank Finger, Jr. and an employee.
we worked together for about 4 or 5 years until he felt I was secure. And then he went to Florida, and I took over the business.
How NARSA Paved the Way to Business Success
Frank Finger: Every person that I have ever met that helped me grow my business was through NARSA. Without NARSA, I would probably be in a one-man radiator shop. It was a convention, and I met a man by the name of Brice Thomas. He was a Barbee distributor at the time. I told him, “I think I could probably speed up my process in the shop if I had a solder pot.” He says, “I know a gentleman who has two solder pots, and he’s a very nice man. I’ll talk to him and I’ll ask him if he will talk to you.” So, he called him up. His name was Willie Matthews, and he was from Richmond, Virginia. Anyway, I called Mr. Matthews, and he said, “Sure y’all come on down.” So Anyway, I go to Richmond, Virginia, and he gives me the address, and it’s in the middle of the city. It’s a whole city block. I’m driving this shop is at. It turned out,
it was the whole city block! I said, “My God.” So anyway I go into the place. He has like 10 test tanks for just heavy equipment. He was doing all the radiators for the trains that all congregated in Richmond. He also had another shop where he did repair work on the regular automobile radiators. And he also had a section where he did air conditioning installs, because back then, cars didn’t come with air conditioning.
We had a whole bunch of guys putting in air conditioners. This gentleman was the nicest man you could ever meet. So he said to me, “Where are you staying tonight?” I said, “Well, I don’t have a room yet.” He says, “No, no, you’re staying at my house.” He took me home. His wife baked me a pie when I left to go back. The nicest people. Took me out to dinner. Showed me around his shop. I went into his television thing on his desk. I said, “What’s that?” “Oh that’s a computer. ” “Computer, what’s a computer?” “Oh, you can run your whole business on this.” And he starts showing me a computer, which I had never seen before. I said, “Oh my god,that’s amazing.”
8 | THE COOLING JOURNAL | January/February 2022
And I said that would be wonderful. So he called a man by the name of Perry Perrault from G&O in New Haven. So I go up to New Haven, Connecticut. We had a nice talk. We got along really well. And he signed me up as a distributor. That was the very, very beginning of distribution. And it would not have had, once again, if I didn’t know people through NARSA to have me meet people in NARSA that all worked together. NARSA is the only place in the world where people can go to meet people that are doing and get ideas from them.
I had a southern gentleman from Rocky Mount Radiator come over to me and said, “You know what Frankie? You sell me something for $10, and I sell something much. But I give you one good idea, and you give me one good idea, we’re both going to walk away richer. And he became President of NARSA.
Mark Taylor: That was Mr. Charlie Braswell.
Frank Finger: Charlie Braswell, what a wonderful man. Wonderful man.
To listen to more of Frank Finger’s interviews on the “Solder & Soot” podcast, visit:
https://narsa-idea.org/podcast/
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